Helmut Newton: A Celebration of Fashion, Eroticism and Photography

Discover the iconic lithographs by photographer Helmut Newton: the man who revolutionized photography and played with many boundaries.

Helmut grew up in a Jewish family in Berlin in 1920. At the age of twelve, Helmut received his first camera and thus began his journey into photography. He took photography lessons from Elsie Neuländer Simon, who did not survive the concentration camps. When his parents decided to flee to South America after Kristallnacht, Helmut went to Singapore on his own. There, he worked as a press photographer for a newspaper.

After numerous travels to Europe and assignments for Vogue, he moved to Paris in the early 1960s. Here, he would work for French Vogue as a fashion photographer for the next decades.

Like no other photographer, Helmut played with the boundaries between fashion photography and eroticism. His photos are therefore erotic, provocative, and challenging. Regardless of receiving opposition against is erotic work, Newton still was able to set a new starting point in the fashion photography and became a major influence for many. 

Currently, there is a Helmut Newton Foundation photography museum in Berlin where much of his work is on display. Additionally, a portion of his work can be seen at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.